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Lakva Sim

Courtesy of Boxrec.com

Not many Mongolian boxers manage to make a name for themselves. In recent years their amateur team has had the odd success story but professionally the country has had very little to talk about. The one, clear exception however was Lkhagva Dugarbaatar, better known as Lakva Sim (21-4-1, 18) who carried the Mongolian spirit in the ring with his ridiculous toughness and genuinely nasty power.

Born in the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator in 1972 Sim would prove to be a very credible amateur boxer. Although his complete amateur record is incomplete it's known that he reached the Quarter finals at both the 1991 and 1993 World Amateur Championships before losing to North Korean Li Gwang Sik (1991) and Romanian Marcelica Tudoriu (1993). He also reached the Quarter finals at the 1994 World Cup and competed at the 1995 World Amateur Championships (though lost in his opening bout).

Soon after the 1995 World Amateur Championships Sim turned his attention to the professional ranks and on his debut he claimed the PABA Lightweight title by stopping Indonesian Max Karamoy. Just a fight later Sim would drop down to Super Featherweight where he would again claim the PABA title.

As the Super Featherweight PABA champion Sim was very impressive defeating the hard hitting Singnum Chuwatana, former world title contender Noree Jockygym and the then unbeaten Gilberto Gonzalez all with in 7 months of claiming the belt. Combined together those 3 men had a record of 88-18-2 and yet they were no match for the emerging Mongolian who was thrown in at the deep end and showed he could swim.

In just Sim's 6th professional bout he would travel to South Korea to face WBA Super Featherweight champion Yong-Soo Choi. The experience difference was huge and Sim, who had only been a professional for 13 months was not only facing a man with over 6 years of professional experience but also 3 world title defenses and a title reign that began before Sim's pro career. Despite the deck being firmly stacked against him Sim put up an excellent effort and only lost via a split decision in a bout that many felt he should have won.

Although Sim had lost to Choi the Mongolian warrior wasn't going to just give up on his dream of being a world champion and 2 years later Sim was given a second chance at a world title this time in Japan. To claim the belt Kim would have to beat Choi's conqueror Takanori Hatakeyama who at the time was unbeaten in 24 fights. This time around Sim wasn't going to be denied and he took the fight to Hatakeyama and dropped him hard in round 5 before a follow up attack forced the referee to stop the bout. This victory saw Sim becoming the first ever Mongolian boxer to claim a professional world title.

Sadly for Sim his reign would last just 4 months before he lost in a thrilling contest to Jong-Kwon Baek in South Korea. Sim would Drop Baek but a point deduction in round 8 effectively cost him a draw on Derek Milham's card, a draw that would have seen Sim retain his title.

Sim would bounce back from his second career loss by stringing together 5 wins including a decision over Seung-Ho Yuh (who would fight Jose Luis Castillo in a world title bout just 3 months later) as he worked his way back in to world title contention. Unfortunately for Sim when he got his next title bout he was up against the extremely talented Thai Yodsanan Sor Nanthachai, a man known as "Thai Tyson" who became the first fight to comprehensibly beat Sim as the Mongolian attempted to regain the WBA Super Featherweight title. The loss for Sim was a real setback though also a blessing in disguise as the Mongolian hard man moved up to Lightweight in the wake of the loss.

Just 3 bouts after losing to Yodsanan Sor Nanthachai, Sim would face off against Miguel Callist for the vacant WBA Lightweight title. This was just Sim's second US bout after defeating the tragic Luis Villalta who died less than a year after fighting Sim in what was Sim's US debut. Against Callist the teak tough Mongolian looked to be getting out boxed by the jab of Callist though turned things around in an aggressive 5th round that saw referee, Tony Gibson, forced to step in and stop the fight.

Sim's second title reign didn't even last as long as his first reign with the Mongolian again losing in his first defense, albeit it to the very good Juan Diaz who would later unify the belt with the WBO and IBF titles to prove he was the best in Lightweight division. The Diaz bout would be the final one in which Sim would fight for a title, in fact Sim would only fight twice more stopping both Shawn Simmons and Ebo Elder (who later went on to compete in "The Contender") before retiring.

Now aged 41 Sim is still the only Mongolian to have claimed a genuine world title (in fact he claimed two) though British based Mongolian Choi Tseveenpurev (who is surprisingly older than Sim) has claimed WBF and WBU titles at Featherweight in his illustrious career.

For fans who want to know just how good Sim was, the video below shows his excellent victory in Japan against Takanori Hatakeyama to claim the WBA Super Featherweight title way back in 1999. This video is thanks to crownknight33 and hopefully will show just how good Sim was as he took out a genuine world level fighter who would later go on to claim the WBA Lightweight title.